Legal Translation

About legal translations in general

Legal texts are generally characterized by clumsy, complicated, grammatically complex sentences. According to lawyers, since the creation of Roman law, our intricate social relationships can only be regulated by norms that strive to cover these relationships in the best possible way and provide them with a legal framework for operation.

One can hardly find any economic, technical, or financial text without legal aspects; i.e. legal regulations intersperse every area of life.

A statutory instrument, for example, prescribes the maximum sulphur content of red wines; strict provisions lay down the composition of plastic that serves as a basis for children’s toys; and, at the construction of motorways, the building authorities stipulate how many centimetres the asphalt layer’s smallest thickness is allowed to be.

What should you take care of in legal translations?

Since the legal order of individual countries evolved independently from each other (e.g. the Anglo-Saxon and Continental legal systems differ in many respects), the only way to make a translation of full value is if the translator is aware of the differences between the legal order of the countries of the source and target language.

We cannot translate, for example, Austria’s provinces as counties, or call Angela Merkel the Prime Minister of Germany instead of Federal Chancellor of Germany. In German corporate law, we can find typical and atypical silent partners, which categories do not exist in Hungarian practice. The Hungarian equivalent for the German word ‘Finanzamt’ is not ‘Pénzügyi Hivatal’ (Financial Office) but ‘Adóhivatal’ (Tax Office), and ‘Krankenversicherungskasse’ cannot be translated literally as ‘Betegbiztosítási Pénztár’ (Sick Insurance Fund), the name of the institution in Hungarian interpretation should be ‘Egészségbiztosítási Pénztár’ (Health Insurance Fund) instead.

The case of certified legal translations

We would like to draw attention to the fact that not every legal text requires certified translation. In Hungary, due to some bad conditioning, many still think that good-quality and lawful translations of legal texts can be made only in a certified format. It is important to dispel this misconception, because one has to pay significantly more for a certified translation, and the process of translation and proofreading is also much longer, since the law authorizes only one translation agency to provide certified translations.

When can Reflex Translation Services provide certified translations?

We are entitled to make certified legal translations of the following types of documents that are required for the registration procedure: deed of foundation, deed of association, minutes of members’ meeting, specimen signature document, certificate of incorporation, company certificate, title deed, and other official documents.

„Those with translator or translator/proofreader certification are also entitled to make certified translations into any of the official languages of the European Union – in accordance with the company's choice – of certificates of incorporation, data that are to be registered into the register of companies, and company documents.”

(Government Decree 182/2009 (IX. 10.) amending and repealing certain Government Decrees in the context of the entry into force of Act CXI of 2008 amending Act CXL 2004 on the general rules of administrative proceedings and services and the implementation of Directive 2006/123/EC on services in the internal market.)

Which authorities, companies order legal translations?

• Most often, legal departments of multinational corporations and lawyers of domestic companies assign us with the translation of contracts with complicated wording, which more often than not were formerly translated and are in many cases to be concluded at an extraordinarily large value. On many occasions, we keep track of the birth of these contracts from the moment future business partners get in touch with each other, providing occasional help through our interpreters.
• Lawyers’ offices, legal firms, notaries public
• Police, public prosecutors’ office, court, ministries, embassies, consulates. It is important to note that e.g. in a court proceedings, the judge often does not require more than the certified translation of the petition and the final decision (ruling); the translation of documents to be submitted in the course of the proceedings is accepted in an official format as well.
• Banks often require employer’s certificates and income certificates from private persons for the purpose of granting a loan, and balance sheets and annual financial reports from companies.
• APEH (Hungarian Tax Authority) and its foreign “sister organizations”, e.g. the Austrian and German Finanzamt have  income certificates translated in order to avoid double taxation.  APEH, in the course of its auditing activity, also requires the translation of contracts and invoices that were not written in Hungarian language.

Contracts and documents that we have already made legal translations of

Sales contract
Rental contract
Blank contract
Contract for professional services
Lease contract
Subscriber contract
Service contract
Articles of incorporation
Bank loan application and contract
Executive employment contract
Dealership agreement
Confidentiality statement
International exclusive sales agreement
Marital property agreement
Grant of probate
Work safety regulations
Patent description
Community customs law, customs papers
Payment warrant, collection of claims
Authorization/power of attorney
Application for legal assistance
Summons/citation
Search warrant
Arrest warrant
Management contract
Supplier framework contract
Bank guarantee
Minutes

Who are our translators?

In the case of legal texts, mistranslations can have serious consequences.

This is why legal translations are performed either by lawyers with several decades of experience who live in Hungary or abroad and possess an excellent knowledge of the given legal area and the language, or by specialized translators with a certificate in legal translation.

If you have further questions concerning translation/interpreting, please send an e-mail to contact@reflex.hu.